Former North Georgia wildlife preserve eyed for development to be saved

The state of Georgia and Bartow and Cherokee counties have agreed to acquire more than 14,000 acres of a former sprawling wildlife preserve and return it to public use and conservation.

The Georgia Department of Natural Resources announced a deal Thursday to acquire the former Pine Log Wildlife Management Area site, the largest contiguous, privately owned forested tract in North Georgia. The state’s lease on the property ended in 2023 after talks broke down, and the land had been eyed by its owner, the Neel family, along with other land holdings for potential redevelopment into commercial and industrial uses. Negotiations between the parties had been happening behind the scenes.

In a news release, DNR Commissioner Walter Rabon had called the Pine Log site one the department’s top conservation targets. The nonprofit Georgia Trust for Historic Preservation in 2024 placed Pine Log Mountain, the core of the tract, on its list of “places in peril.”

The former Pine Log Wildlife Management Area is the largest contiguous, privately owned forested tract in North Georgia. (Miguel Martinez/AJC 2024)

“Over the last four years, we never lost sight of the goal to acquire Pine Log and permanently secure it for public recreation and wildlife conservation,” Rabon said in the release. “But we also made it to this point because the Neels and Bartow and Cherokee County leaders, along with many others, shared that focus and perseverance.”

The state of Georgia appropriated $15 million with Bartow and Cherokee leaders contributing funding to acquire the site. A total purchase price was not announced in the release.

The site, to be renamed the Neel Family-Pine Log Wildlife Management Area, will span 14,640 acres, slightly larger than the former WMA, Jim Ramseur, an attorney for the Neel family, told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

The preserve is expected to reopen to the public in early 2027, in time for turkey hunting season, the release said.

“Protecting Pine Log Mountain ensures this remarkable landscape will remain accessible for outdoor recreation, wildlife conservation and environmental stewardship long into the future,” Ramseur said in the release.

Lee Neel, president of Aubrey Corp., a Neel family company, said: “It has been a joy and an honor for our family, over four generations, to manage and build out the footprint of what is now the Pine Log WMA.”

“This is a truly special and unique place — not only because of its ecology, remoteness, and extraordinary size within a rapidly changing development corridor, but also because of its geography, geology, and rich history.”

The sales agreement ends a yearslong saga over the future of the privately owned slice of North Georgia wilderness that included public pressure to preserve the land, negotiation impasses and rounds of development plans.

The Neel family, which amassed some 19,500 acres of land in Bartow and Cherokee counties over the past century, in February 2023 began pursuing a master plan to potentially redevelop the Pine Log WMA and other land. Three months later, the family opted not to renew its lease agreement with the state, cutting off public access while forming a plan to sell the property for development.

Residents pressured the state and the Neel family, producing a petition with more than 14,000 signatures urging the state to acquire the property.

During the process, the DNR and Neel family were negotiating potential terms. But discussions broke down on multiple occasions over the price, allowing the long-term development plan to slowly progress.

The initial vision contemplated a two-decade development plan that included 16,500 acres, which spanned the former Pine Log WMA and adjacent land owned by the Neel family.

The scope of the proposal prompted Bartow County to rewrite part of its zoning code to allow for a “development district,” which was approved by Bartow County Sole Commissioner Steve Taylor later in 2023.